• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

Blog

Apartment Living is Crushing My Soul

07/26/2015 by Debra

laundry billowing in the breeze
Watching the laundry billowing in the breeze..

Apartment living is crushing my soul.

I feel as though I have lost my connection to life. Time and seasons pass but nothing changes. It’s the same four walls. The difference only whether there is snow or leaves on the trees I can see through the balcony door.

I long for a garden. To smell and feel the earth between my fingers. To watch for signs of life in the spring. To watch the bees too laden with pollen to fly on drowsy summer afternoons.

I long to plant bulbs in the fall. The anticipation of seeing their colourful nodding heads carrying me through the short snowy days of winter. I even miss shovelling that snow.

I miss my bird feeders. The birdsong a constant joyful refrain through all the days of the year. Watching them with their babies, searching for bugs in the garden or huddling in the bushes on a snowy winters day darting out now and again for seed. Their constant unyielding perseverance through storms and against obstacles an inspiration.

I miss having a kiddie pool to splash around in. Even though my kids have long outgrown one, no one is too old for a splash on a muggy summer’s day.

I miss my laundry line. Watching the laundry billowing in the breeze or hanging on for dear life on a blustery late fall day. The fresh glorious smell of outdoors and sunshine that lingers on the clothes.

I miss having BBQ’s the smell of the flames gently searing the meat or grilling the veggies.

Instead I wander through life as though it is a library. Borrowing the smell of someone else’s BBQ, the sight of their laundry billowing on the line. Borrowing the sights and smells of their gardens.

I find myself becoming bitter and jealous in my little cocoon world.

I long to have a patch of earth to tend again. To wander in late winter and early spring to see which plants have dared to poke their heads out despite the raging weather. To feel freshly mown grass between my toes. To watch the progression of life through the garden seasons.

Like a newly emerged butterfly I want to sit out on my patch of earth and feel the sun’s warmth spreading over me.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: #HamOnt, apartment living, depression

December 6th. Just a date.

12/06/2014 by Debra

rose in the snow
Don’t Mourn, Organize!

December 6th. Just a date. Maybe an early Christmas party or a school play. Perhaps a time to start putting out decorations or maybe – a time to purchase candles and roses. A purchase not made in anticipation of a celebration but one made in memorial of 14 women who were gunned down simply because they were women and they were there.

December 6th, 1989 at l’École Polytechnique de Montréal
Geneviève Bergeron
Hélène Colgan
Nathalie Croteau
Barbara Daigneault
Anne-Marie Edward
Maud Haviernick
Barbara Maria Klucznik
Maryse Leclair
Annie St.-Arneault
Michèle Richard
Maryse Laganière
Anne-Marie Lemay
Sonia Pelletier
Annie Turcotte

became victims of hatred. Victims of misogyny. Lights shining on the ugly truth that women had not yet been fully accepted as equals.

Twenty years on can we really say that much has changed?

In 1982 MP Margaret Mitchell rose to educate the house on domestic violence, she told them how one in 10 Canadian women were victims of domestic assault the response by the male MPs was laughing and shouting.

In 2009 during the height of the H1N1 Flu scare MP Carolyn Bennett rose to ask a question on behalf of a troubled constituent. The woman in question was pregnant and had received conflicting advice as to the safety of the H1N1 vaccine, she was looking to her government for help. The response? Laughter, derision, hooting and hollering. 27 years later women’s concerns are still seen as a joke.

When Margaret Mitchell was elected in 1979 [30 years ago] women accounted for approximately 10% of elected MPs. Today that number has risen to approximately 21% that is an abysmal amount of representation and a sad commentary on the last 30 years.

This year as you remember and mourn the loss of 14 of our sisters remember also the words of Joe Hill; Don’t Mourn, Organize!

Help Equal Voice to get more women elected, fight for strong gun control, support women’s reproductive choice, donate to a local shelter, help a woman or a young girl learn tech skills or use those skills to help others.

In the words of Emma Goldman;
“No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution… revolution is but thought carried into action.”

Filed Under: women Tagged With: December 6, feminists, L’Ecole Polytechnique, violence

Puppy Love

04/05/2014 by Debra

Nothing of great social or political import just some cute shots of the dog. 🙂

Filed Under: Blogging

Snowy Afternoon Walking With My Dog

02/01/2014 by Debra

A few pics and short video showing just how hard it was snowing. Looks lovely and for once wasn’t bitterly cold.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: Hamilton, Robbie, snow

Psstt… Hey you! Ya You Poking Your Nose In Other People’s Wombs.. Come Here

01/30/2014 by Debra

Here’s the deal. We get you like the fetuses. We get you want to hold them and pat and call them George.hug-him
Well guess what? Now you can. Just steal borrow an ultrasound from someone you don’t know and have no business interfering with and have this company print out your very own fetus plaything! Hours of fun! Get yours today!

Filed Under: abortion Tagged With: 3d printing, abortion, trust women

What Happens When You Just Don’t Clique?

01/18/2014 by Debra

alone-with-peopleThe internet has been fantastically effective in allowing people to communicate. While post and phones and radios did allow communication across distances, they were not as easy and accessible as such things as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr etc. are.

Social networks have brought together political nations, self defined nations such as Leaf Nation and Ford Nation (both the vehicle and train wreck varieties), political groups, those looking for medical support the list goes on.

And yet while some find their voice, or ‘friends’ beyond number or become ‘Tumblr famous’ others feel even lonelier than ever. Being an introvert or being socially autistic, as Stephen Merchant describes himself in Hello Ladies, seems to carry over even into the social networking sphere.

charlie-brown-footballIt is a lonely business to be on social networks and imagine you have friends only to find you were fooling yourself. Rather like Charlie Brown thinking this will be the time he kicks that ball only to have Lucy pull it away again at the last moment.

Social networks do contribute to a more democratic and inclusive way for the world to relate to one another, however, they also contribute to and reinforce the exclusionary nature of cliques. Those of us who always found ourselves on the sidelines continue to find ourselves watching while the cool kids make connections and lifelong friendships.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: introverts, social networking, Tumblr, twitter

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 93
  • Go to Next Page »

Footer

Community

  • MoS on Snowy Afternoon Walking With My Dog
  • anonymous on Snowy Afternoon Walking With My Dog
  • Alison on Psstt… Hey you! Ya You Poking Your Nose In Other People’s Wombs.. Come Here
  • Debra on Facebook and Progressive Values
  • anymouse on Facebook and Progressive Values

WordPress Design,
Consultation & Training

Fat Cat Designs

Copyright © 2025 | Privacy Policy | Log in | Home

 

Loading Comments...
 

    We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkNoRead more
    Revoke Consent